Heart Disease Symptoms

Health professionals have recognized the nutritive and the health benefits of wine for years even centuries. Hippocrates recommended specific wines to purge fever, disinfect wounds, as diuretics, or nutritional supplements, around 450 B.C. Many books have been written about the curative properties of wine as early as 1410 A.D. Many studies worldwide have concluded that most healthy people who drink wine on a regular basis and with moderation live longer. Wine, for centuries, has been considered as a remedy rather than a toxin. In America, for a whole generation, mainly following the Prohibition years, the potential health benefits of wine were denied. But, in 1991, the medicinal properties of wine begin to return when the French Paradox was publicly revealed following a closed scrutiny on the diet of people in Southern France. It was found out that they had a much lower rate of heart disease than in America notwithstanding their intake of high proportion of fatty foods. Since then, over three thousands studies have broken out all over the World, most importantly in America and provided evidence that wine has positive health effects.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF WINE

Many medical studies have showed multiple benefits of regular moderate wine drinking, including lowered risks of stroke, colorectal tumors, some types of cancers, senile dementia, and even the common cold. A Harvard research has indicated that moderate intake of red wine is very beneficial for heart health. The cardio protective effect has been attributed to antioxidants present in the skin and seeds of red grapes. Scientists believe that the antioxidants, called flavonoids, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Other researches have found that moderate red wine may also inhibit tumor development in some cancers and may as well be helpful in the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At the University of California, reasearchers have determined that Cabernet Sauvignon has the highest concentration of flavonoids. Sweeter the wine, the fewer flavonoids. Dryer red wines are the best bet for a flavonoid boost.

They have also found out that grape juice or non alcoholic red wine contains the same antioxydant profile as red wine. However, grape juice does not lower LDL cholesterol the Bad cholesterol) levels compared to red wine. Flavonoids increase HDL cholesterol(the Good cholesterol) and prevent blood clotting , plaques formation in arteries and reduce the blood vessel damage caused by fat deposits. It is very important here to mention that wine consumption should be limited to two servings per day for Men and one serving per day for Women to reap the maximum benefits. Moderate amounts of wine should be limited to individuals with a clean bill of health. People with medical and social conditions worsened by alcohol should not consume alcohol at all.

Since the evidence seems clear now that red wine is beneficial for our health, here is a toast to your health! Cheers!

Gilles Coulombe B.A. B.LL D.S.A.

Cholesterol is also found in some of the foods you eat. Cholesterol is a lipid found in the cell membranes of all animal tissues, and it is transported in the blood plasma of all animals. Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance made in the liver and found in certain foods, such as food from animals, like dairy products (whole milk), eggs and meat.

When you have too much cholesterol, it can be dangerous to your health. Managing high cholesterol may be different for each individual depending on your medical history and your health. Lowering your cholesterol level decreases your chance for having a plaque burst and cause a heart attack.

Below are some suggested natural ways to reduce your cholesterol:

Reduce Your Fat Intake. Saturated fat elevates your blood cholesterol count, polyunsaturated fats lower blood cholesterol, and dietary cholesterol can also contributed to elevated blood cholesterol levels. Out of all of these, the saturated fat has the most impact on your cholesterol level. You will want to cut back on saturated fat foods such as meat, butter, cheese, whenever possible. Replace these with fish, poultry, low fat dairy products, and polyunsaturated oils such as corn, sunflower, and soybean.You will want to reduce the amount of eggs you eat. You might want to limit yourself to 3 whole eggs a week to be on the safe side. Since egg yokes contain the cholesterol, the eggs whites are ok to eat freely.

Legumes (Beans) are nutritious and don’t cost a lot. Beans and other legumes contain water-soluable fiber which helps to transport cholesterol out of your system before it can cause problems. You can try eating kidney beans, pinto beans, soybeans, lima beans, navy beans, lentils, etc. All of these are excellent sources of fiber as well.

Oats appear to to lower serum cholesterol levels. Eating oat bran does as good a job of reducing your cholesterol levels as legumes do.Carrots(which contain calcium pectate) can also help to reduce cholesterol, but not to the extent which legumes and oats do.

Corn is as effective s oats and beans in lowering your cholesterol. Using about one ounce of corn meal with each meal can really help to bring down high levels of cholesterol.Its important to drink lots of skim milk. Cutting out fat-bearing milk will help to bring down your cholesterol.

Raw garlic can help to reduce harmful level of blood fat. If you take one gram a day for 6 months, you cholesterol levels should fall an average of 40 points within six months.Vigorous exercise has been proven to raise your level of HDL(good cholesterol) when modestly lowers your level of HDL(bad cholesterol).

As part of the natural ways to reduce cholesterol mentioned above, you will want to avoid, coffee, cigarettes, and most red meat (for now).

You are taking quite a few prescription medications to help with the symptoms of cardiomyopathy, and you are feeling okay, but the improvements in your heart aren’t happening very quickly or maybe not at all. You are feeling better, but you still have heart failure and you might be wondering if you will need to take all these medications from now on. Are they going to fix your cardiomyopathy or is this just a temporary fix?

Cardiomyopathy can become a more serious condition if your heart doesn’t improve its muscle functions. The heart muscle loses its ability to pump blood and becomes abnormally enlarged. Blood clots may form because of the stagnation of blood in the heart chambers and this may lead to embolism and reduced blood supply to other areas such as the brain, gut and extremities.

There are different types of Cardiomyopathy:

Dilated Cardiomyopathy, also known as congestive cardiomyopathy is a condition where the heart becomes enlarged or dilated because the heart muscles are too weak to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body. Arrhythmia or Abnormal heart rhythms are sometimes present in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. The heart structure that has changed with the cardiomyopathy affects the way that the electrical signals regulating the heartbeat travel through the heart, therefore causing tachycardia, which is increased heartbeat or rbradycardia, meaning decreased heartbeat.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an abnormal thickening of the muscular heart wall. This leads to obstruction of blood flow from the heart, known as HOCM or hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a rare form of cardiomyopathy. In this case, the heart muscle becomes rigid and so the heart has difficulty relaxing and cannot fill properly. The heart is unable to pump blood as effectively as it should be.

Prescription drugs will help tremendously to help you heart function better for now, but will they heal your heart? Medical doctors concede that the medications that are given to Cardiomyopathy patients cannot reverse the damage already done to the heart muscle. So this means that you will probably need to stay on them for a very long time just to keep your heart functioning normally. The problem is that in most cases, over time your heart may eventually get weaker and a heart transplant will be recommended by your cardiologist.

There are other solutions that can be effective but where do you turn? I have found that proper nutrition is the key to most all sickness. And it can help your heart failure or cardiomyopathy. There are no known bad side effects, and recommended nutrition along with your prescribed medications can have positive results in cardiomyopathy patients.

Instead of accepting that prescription medications alone are the only treatment for cardiomyopathy, it might be beneficial to investigate the latest nutritional advantages just for your heart health.

The HDL LDL ratio is an indicator of your risk for heart disease. The better the ratio, the less likely you are to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular problems. I will show you how to increase HDL and the foods to raise HDL.

About the Ratio

High Density Lipoprotein is a substance that carries cholesterol particles from your artery walls back through the bloodstream and into the liver where some of it is metabolized and some excreted from your body in the form of bile salts. Statistics show that when the ratio is favorable, your risk of heart problems is minimized, so it makes sense to learn how to increase HDL, and keep the HDL LDL ratio as good as possible.

The ratio is determined by taking your LDL, (low-density cholesterol) number, and dividing it by your HDL (high-density cholesterol) number. The result is what doctors use to determine your risk of cardiovascular disease.The higher the HDL, the lower the risk. Lets look at some numbers to give you an idea of how this works.

For example:

* Total cholesterol is: 200
* HDL is: 50
* LDL is: 150

The ratio would be: 3 This would be considered a good ratio, indicating the person would have a lower than average risk of heart disease.

Over time, what was considered to be good or safe levels of cholesterol have been adjusted downward, in part due to the push to get more people on cholesterol lowering medications. Foods to raise HDL have not been emphasized for this reason. The current medical model for prevention of cardiovascular disease focuses on drug therapy. This is why you must learn how to increase HDL and get the optimal HDL LDL ratio to prevent heart disease.

High-density lipoproteins have recently been found to have potent antioxidant activity, and this may well be the reason for its “protective” role in regards to vascular disease. See the notation below:

Vohl MC, Neville TA, Kumarathasan R, Braschi S, Sparks DL: A novel lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase antioxidant activity prevents the formation of oxidized lipids during lipoprotein oxidation. Biochemistry; 1999 May 11;38(19):5976-81

Several things that are known to raise HDL levels.

* Aerobic or interval training exercise
* Dietary changes – with balanced fat intake
* Eat for your blood type and metabolic type
* Specific nutritional supplements

The foods to increase HDL do it in several ways. Some foods like healthy fats, provide the raw materials or (precursors) your body needs to make HDL. Other foods such as high fiber foods and low glycemic fruits and vegetables may indirectly raise HDL by preventing inflammation, boosting antioxidant status, and lowering blood sugar and insulin. Some of these foods may also possess antioxidant activity themselves and work synergistically with HDL to protect against cardiovascular disease.

Specific supplements that will raise HDL levels and help optimize the HDL LDL ratio are:

* Fish oil
* Pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5)
* niacin – (vitamin B-3)
* Gugulipid
* Coenzyme Q-10
* Carnitine
* Vitamin-C
* Magnesium
* Polycosanol
* Vitamin E-complex
* Alpha Lipoic Acid
* N-Acetyl-Cysteine
* CLA – conjugated linoleic acid

All of these supplements help increase HDL levels, however niacin (B-3) and calcium pantothenate (B-5) are the most effective. Focus on them first, and add others if needed.

Foods to Raise HDL

There are a number of foods that are claimed to raise HDL levels. Among these are:

* Fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines
* Raw nuts and seeds such as walnuts, pecans, almonds, and flaxseeds
* Whole eggs
* Onions
* Fresh raw low glycemic vegetables – especially dark leafy greens
* Oat bran
* Alcohol – 1 or 2 drinks per day maximum

Action Steps

* Get your HDL LDL ratio tested to establish baseline levels
* Work in 3 sessions of circuit weight training or interval training per week
* Eat for your blood type and metabolic type
* Avoid of refined foods as possible – stick to raw fruits and vegetables
* Be sure to get plenty of good fats in your daily diet
* Supplement with niacin (B-3) and calcium pantothenate (B-5) to raise HDL

The HDL LDL ratio is one of the cornerstones of wellness and antiaging. It’s a benchmark that will help you really reduce your risk of heart disease and ensure a long and healthy life!

Symptoms of heart attack vary greatly.

The symptoms you experience may be different from the one experienced by a relative or a friend. For instance, you may have only minor chest pain while your relative or friend has violent pain……

A heart attack is, what can I say, a traumatic and frightening event. You probably don’t want to think about it. But, if you know the symptoms and know what to do, you can save a life – your friend’s; neighbor’s; colleague’s or even your own life.

You may think a heart attack is sudden and intense, like a usual heart attack scene potrayed in a movie or TV show – a person clutches his or her chest and then collapses……

It might be like that but you’d be surprised to know that most heart attacks begin slowly as a mild pain or discomfort in the center of your chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. You feel an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in your chest.

However, you won’t be sure of the symptom; even those who have had a heart attack before may not recognize their symptoms, because the next attack can have entirely different symptoms.

What are the typical symptoms of a heart attack that you can “rely” on then?

1. Chest Discomfort or Pain

This chest discomfort or pain can feel like a tight ache, pressure, fullness or squeezing in the center of your chest lasting more than a few minutes. It may come and go.

2. Upper Body Pain

Pain or discomfort in your shoulders, arms, back, neck, teeth or jaw.

You may have upper body pain but no pain in your chest.

3. Stomach pain

Pain may extend downward into your abdominal area and may feel like heartburn.

4. Shortness of Breath

You may pant for breath or struggle to take in deep breaths. This often happens before you get chest discomfort.

5. Anxiety

You may feel a sense of doom or feel as if you’re having a panic attack for no good reason.

6. Dizziness

You may feel dizzy or feel like you might pass out.

7. Sweating

You may suddenly break into a sweat with cold, clammy skin.

8. Nausea And Vomiting

You may feel sick to your stomach or vomit.

My advice is this: even if you’re not sure it’s a heart attack, you should still have it checked out. Fast action can save your life or someone else life……

While there are many illnesses that fall under the umbrella of heart disease, one that receives little attention is Cardiomyopathy. This disease is caused by long term alcohol abuse and leads to heart failure in the victim.

The symptoms of this debilitating disease usually start to occur after the disease has advanced. The symptoms are swelling of the ankles, feet and legs; loss of appetite, difficulty breathing, fatigue, shortness of breath, decreased concentration, cough with mucus or pink material, need to urinate at night, palpitations, and irregular or rapid pulse. Once these symptoms have begun to present themselves the disease has already advanced.

The treatment course for this disease is a complete abstinence from alcohol. A restricted diet and medications will also be prescribed. The most difficult part of the treatment may be the abstinence from alcohol. If a patient has abused alcohol to the point of causing heart disease they have probably suffered with the disease of alcoholism for most of their life. It is absolutely imperative that the patient seeks treatment for alcoholism as part of their overall treatment plan.

Finding the correct course of treatment for alcoholism is not always easy. The patient must understand and be willing to treat their abuse of alcohol in order for treatment to be successful. The connection between the heart disease and the alcoholism must be clear to the patient for them to understand the ramifications of their continued drinking. While the heart disease may never be able to be reversed its progress can be slowed or stopped.

Many alcoholics fail to see the correlation between their physical problems and the alcohol they consume. One of the most frustrating aspects of alcoholism is the denial that usually accompanies it. Families and friends of alcoholics are usually guilty of this denial as well. Many families will cover up for a loved ones drinking so that they do not feel any ill effects from their disease. This must stop in every case but most especially in the case of alcoholic heart disease.

The patient is suffering from two diseases and both must be treated successfully for the patient to survive. Families must understand that they are not helping the alcoholic by covering up their problems and allowing them to drink uncontrollably. It will be necessary for every member of a family to participate in their loved ones recovery. By participation it may mean that family members will no longer cover up drinking and not allow the alcoholic to lie about their drinking. Facing their responsibilities is the best medicine a family can provide to the alcoholic.

While alcohol may have caused the heart disease the patient is suffering from it does not have to continue to add to further deterioration. Heart disease that is caused by excessive and chronic drinking is a wake up call to the alcoholic. It is a message from the body that their continued abuse must stop. They must heed the warnings that their body is telling them before it is too late.

The best time to consider a bypass is before you have any symptoms of heart disease.Though weighing only about ten ounces, a healthy heart is capable of pumping 1,000 gallons of life sustaining blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels by beating an incredible 100,000 times a day for as much as 100 years or more.

Understanding Your Heart

To get an idea of the intensity of your heart’s job, let’s do an experiment. Take a tennis ball and fold your fingers over it. Now squeeze the ball every second for an entire minute – sixty times. It’s an exhausting job, isn’t it?

That’s the work your heart has to do for your whole life – 60 to 70 times every minute, 4,000 times every hour, 24 hours a day, all day – every day.

Maybe you’ve been taking your heart for granted!

This highly efficient pump is the most amazing organ in your body. It’s also probably the most abused, although I’m sure nobody does it intentionally.

But the fact is, heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. and in over 50% of the cases, there are no prior indications – the first symptom of the disease is death.

Cardiovascular Disease and Your Heart

Many types of coronary diseases are known. Some are caused by an infection, some are congenital but most heart problems are caused by hardening of the arteries.

And if you add oxidized cholesterol to the blood, you get an even more serious condition. Both hardening of the arteries and oxidized cholesterol restrict the flow of blood to the body’s cells, causing major health concerns for your heart.

Different cardiovascular conditions can vary by degrees, but may have common signs and symptoms. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, poor LDL ratios, elevated triglyceride and homocysteine levels are the most common indicators of trouble ahead.

Common symptoms include angina (chest pain), shortness of breath, irregular heartbeats, faster heartbeats, dizziness, nausea and sweating.

Here’s Good News for Your Heart

Changes in your lifestyle – diet, exercise, stress management – can prevent, control and even reverse many of these problems to help you have a healthy heart.

To bypass heart disease and to have a healthy heart, start by cleaning up your lifestyle. Stop smoking, cut out caffeine and sugar, manage your alcohol consumption, decrease stress, exercise regularly and drink lots of water – it’s good for your heart.

For next, it’s time to switch to a whole food plan. Eat low glycemic carbohydrates, more whole grains, colorful fruits, vegetables and other fiber rich, nutritious foods.

Also, it’s a good idea to lower your fat intake to around 25% of daily calories. Avoid all processed fats. Stick with extra virgin olive oil and very small amounts of butter instead.

But, even when you do the best you can, it’s next to impossible, to get everything you need from the foods you eat. This is where whole food supplements can help.

Important Supplements for Heart Health

Start with a basic, natural whole food multiple. To this add extra nutrients, such as natural vitamins B, C and E (excellent for cardiovascular health).

Certain B vitamins, for example, help manage the homocyteine cycle. But make sure your B vitamins are in a balanced B complex that includes the whole vitamin B family (isolating one B vitamin can prevent the efficient uptake of all the others).

Omega 3 fish oil that’s high in EPA and DHA has also been proven to have many benefits for heart health and should be part of everyone’s daily nutritional program.

Doctors now know that heart disease is so deadly for women that their chances of dying from it are one in two. That means basically that either you or your best girlfriend is likely to die of a heart attack, stroke , or related heart problem. Doctors have traditionally used a one-size-fits-all approach to identifying and diagnosing heart disease. In this view, women often lack the “classic” signs of reduced blood flow to part of the heart, a condition known as ischemia. Doctors and patients often attribute chest pains in women to noncardiac causes, leading to misinterpretation of their condition. Men usually experience crushing chest pain during a heart attack.

Cardiovascular disease encompasses the diseases of the heart and the blood vessels. These develop and progress slowly over our lifetime and often without symptoms. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for more deaths than the next seven causes of death in women combined, including all forms of cancer. Since 1984, men have experienced a decline in deaths due to CVD; women have not. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one killer of women in the United States. Long thought of as primarily affecting men, we now know that CVD—including heart disease, hypertension, and stroke—also affects a substantial number of women.

Estrogen provides a beneficial effect on the arteries. When estrogen production slows down, women lose that protective effect,” Even so, Kusler adds, women in their 30s and 40s still experience heart attacks. Estrogen serves as protection against heart disease in women, therefore once a woman has gone through menopause her risk increases dramatically.

Risk of coronary events begins to decline within months of stopping smoking and reaches the level of persons who have never smoked within 3 to 5 years. Sadly, though, smoking cessation rates have declined more slowly among women than men. Risk was not associated with dose or duration of use of estrogen and did not persist after oral contraceptives were discontinued.

African Americans are at substantially higher risk for death from CVD than are whites. This difference is attributable in part to a greater risk for strokes and a higher prevalence of high blood pressure among African Americans. African American and Hispanic women, who are at higher risk of heart disease than white women, continue to have lower rates of awareness.

Aspirin therapy is recommended for women over age 65 to prevent heart attack and stroke as long as blood pressure is controlled and the benefit is likely to outweigh the risk of gastrointestinal side effects. Regular use of aspirin is not recommended for healthy women under age 65 to prevent heart attacks. Aspirin treatment reduced risk of subsequent cardiovascular events by about 25%. Lipid-lowering therapy also appears to provide substantial benefit in secondary prevention in women. Aspirin has also been shown to be of preventive benefit in women to reduce the incidence of coronary artery disease and strokes. In women with multiple risk factors for coronary artery disease, a dose of 325 mg per day is recommended, while in lower-risk women, 81 mg is probably sufficient.